i wouldn't say poor, but the apple family income is definitely seasonal. zap-apple jam sales, cider season, etc. bring in alot, but that still has to last through the rest of the year, so a simple lifestyle makes sense. it's more like they own kraft foods, and rarity's in the debeers family.

i wouldn't say poor, but the apple family income is definitely seasonal. zap-apple jam sales, cider season, etc. bring in alot, but that still has to last through the rest of the year, so a simple lifestyle makes sense. it's more like they own kraft foods, and rarity's in the debeers family.

Is Rarity even rich?

depends on how you describe it. she seems to be in the "rich" category of people who make lots of money but don't actually OWN much, because they go through it about as fast as they make it, which is why she's so fanatical about her fashion career. that's how she maintains the "style to which she is accustomed"... i mean, as stated, she can always find jewels, so it's not like she'd ever be left with nothing, but she does have (and play with) a lot of money...

The fan economy is the opposite of trickle-down, with handcrafted art going at a premium, licensed merch in the midrange, official merch at the low end, and the actual show being livestreamed and shared within hours of airing. Once you have a McDonald's toy sitting on your desk at work, you wonder if you're any good with a paintbrush. It's like there's a hedonic treadmill of pony; once you get used to a certain level of pony in your life, you start to chase the next one...

Also, come to think of it, the difference between nouveu riche with conspicuous consumption (Rarity, whose parents are ordinary suburbanites absent gem-finding ability or any interest in the high society life) and old-money rich with long term investments (Applejack, third generation SAA farmer whose family owns huge amounts of productive land, and the infrastructure in barns, plows, cider presses, etc to go with it)

Ishidan:Also, come to think of it, the difference between nouveu riche with conspicuous consumption (Rarity, whose parents are ordinary suburbanites absent gem-finding ability or any interest in the high society life) and old-money rich with long term investments (Applejack, third generation SAA farmer whose family owns huge amounts of productive land, and the infrastructure in barns, plows, cider presses, etc to go with it)

Ishidan:Also, come to think of it, the difference between nouveu riche with conspicuous consumption (Rarity, whose parents are ordinary suburbanites absent gem-finding ability or any interest in the high society life) and old-money rich with long term investments (Applejack, third generation SAA farmer whose family owns huge amounts of productive land, and the infrastructure in barns, plows, cider presses, etc to go with it)

That jibes nicely with filly Applejack's reaction to Manehattan social life: "buck that noise..." It also fits well with Rarity's "Sweet and Elite" trip to Canterlot; she'd have farked it up completely without a little help from Fancy Pants, who helped cover for her after every social faux-pas. You can take the pony out of Ponyville, but you can't take the Ponyville out of the pony.

gnosis301:Still not seeing Rarity as rich. Upper middle class, maybe, but not rich.

i know hoity toity's already got karl lagerfeld sewn up... *snerk* but you're still looking at someone who's playing the high-end fashion game, it's not so much what she HAS in the way of money, but what she's WORTH as far as her product...

cynicalminion:gnosis301: Still not seeing Rarity as rich. Upper middle class, maybe, but not rich.

i know hoity toity's already got karl lagerfeld sewn up... *snerk* but you're still looking at someone who's playing the high-end fashion game, it's not so much what she HAS in the way of money, but what she's WORTH as far as her product...

And herein lies the difference between money and wealth. A million bits' worth of money means you can blow it all on a 20-year sugar and cider bender. Being a princess, magician, fashion designer, athlete, veterinarian, party organizer, or apple farmer means you have wealth: the ability to generate more money as required. On Earth, social class corresponds inversely with the amount of effort required to generate said money; the harder you have to work, the less social capital you get with the job. The Equestrian economy is geared more along the lines everypony doing whatever it they're best at and letting the bits fall where they may.

Twilight Farkle:cynicalminion: gnosis301: Still not seeing Rarity as rich. Upper middle class, maybe, but not rich.

i know hoity toity's already got karl lagerfeld sewn up... *snerk* but you're still looking at someone who's playing the high-end fashion game, it's not so much what she HAS in the way of money, but what she's WORTH as far as her product...

And herein lies the difference between money and wealth. A million bits' worth of money means you can blow it all on a 20-year sugar and cider bender. Being a princess, magician, fashion designer, athlete, veterinarian, party organizer, or apple farmer means you have wealth: the ability to generate more money as required. On Earth, social class corresponds inversely with the amount of effort required to generate said money; the harder you have to work, the less social capital you get with the job. The Equestrian economy is geared more along the lines everypony doing whatever it they're best at and letting the bits fall where they may.

fair enough. it wandered a bit afield, but even with the bits falling where they may, cadence/sa's wedding would have pretty much landed all six of them in the same social standing as the people hired for will&kate's, though, whether they blatantly show it or not...

eddievercetti:I liked it, seems AJ learned a lot with seeing regardless of your family being crazy, the best families are the ones that stay together.

/Seems the songs are back, BLAH!

Blah to songs being back?

Sure, they're not going to all be Smile Smile Smile, but they've had some damn good ones. Even Racist Barn was okay, though this episode's AJ song was better.

And you know there's going to have to be a song in the Weird Al episode. And the Filli Vanilli episode. In fact, that string of numbers Meghan McCarthy tweeted out sort of confirms those are the song episodes.

/Filli Vanilli. Jesus. That's almost too obscure, even for the Brony audience, much less the intended audience.//Girl you know it's Girl you know it's Girl you know it's Girl you know it's...

cynicalminion:fair enough. it wandered a bit afield, but even with the bits falling where they may, cadence/sa's wedding would have pretty much landed all six of them in the same social standing as the people hired for will&kate's, though, whether they blatantly show it or not...

...and how far did that get them?

I think we're also dealing with a problem of scale. Let's just forget about the bottom six billion people on the planet completely and concentrate on the top 15% of the world's population who have a western standard of living. The divergence between the 1% / 99% is an easy-to-remember slogan, but that's still 3,000,000 people in the United States alone. There's about as big a wealth gap between the top 0.01% (30,000 Americans) as there is between the 1% and the 99%. When we imagine a thousand people who might participate in a one-in-a-billion event like a royal wedding, you're looking for one-in-a-million caliber people.

Back in Equestria, we're looking at a population of a few hundred thousand (assuming a few thousand per town, with some towns larger than others) at most. You're a lot more likely to become a big fish in a small pond. Even if we assume Equestria's wealth disparities are comparable to those of the US, the one-in-a-thousand ponies may be doing pretty well for themselves, but being part of the top 1%-0.1% (vs the top 0.01%) still doesn't guarantee you a cab ride in Manehattan.

FirstNationalBastard:/Filli Vanilli. Jesus. That's almost too obscure, even for the Brony audience, much less the intended audience.//Girl you know it's Girl you know it's Girl you know it's Girl you know it's...

the cmc get their cutie marks, but have them revoked at the end of the episode?

Twilight Farkle:cynicalminion:fair enough. it wandered a bit afield, but even with the bits falling where they may, cadence/sa's wedding would have pretty much landed all six of them in the same social standing as the people hired for will&kate's, though, whether they blatantly show it or not...

[i.chzbgr.com image 248x375]

...and how far did that get them?

I think we're also dealing with a problem of scale. Let's just forget about the bottom six billion people on the planet completely and concentrate on the top 15% of the world's population who have a western standard of living. The divergence between the 1% / 99% is an easy-to-remember slogan, but that's still 3,000,000 people in the United States alone. There's about as big a wealth gap between the top 0.01% (30,000 Americans) as there is between the 1% and the 99%. When we imagine a thousand people who might participate in a one-in-a-billion event like a royal wedding, you're looking for one-in-a-million caliber people.

Back in Equestria, we're looking at a population of a few hundred thousand (assuming a few thousand per town, with some towns larger than others) at most. You're a lot more likely to become a big fish in a small pond. Even if we assume Equestria's wealth disparities are comparable to those of the US, the one-in-a-thousand ponies may be doing pretty well for themselves, but being part of the top 1%-0.1% (vs the top 0.01%) still doesn't guarantee you a cab ride in Manehattan.

And poor Thunderlane.... the cabbies won't even stop for him, especially at night

that's kind of what i meant about the episodes themselves. there are sideways references to alot of things, but it's kinda conveniently glossed over when the actual episode storyline is more important...

i guess i see it as one of those "stars without makeup" kind of deals, where when the six are running around doing whatever they're doing in the episode, they're out of context, and people aren't EXPECTING them. also, as was mentioned, you can take the pony out of ponyville, but you can't take the ponyville out of the pony. they're kinda used to having to pull their own weight, but every once in a while, it's convenient for the episode to remember (or forget) that they DO have connections they can use...

Oh yeah, Weird Al episode.Here's my prediction: Weird Al has written Discord's song./know who else we need to meet? The Equestria smithy. Somebody had to make the train, the SCS6k, and all the Castle's traps, amongst other mechanical wonders. And I want that smithy to be an old and grizzled stallion...voiced by Peter Cullen.

Twilight Farkle:but being part of the top 1%-0.1% (vs the top 0.01%) still doesn't guarantee you a cab ride in Manehattan.

Although having a team of friends consisting of a Wonderbolt-grade speed flyer with weather control abilities, a farm girl with a high towing capacity, and a master of teleportation and levitation magics means you never have to do anything so common as "hailing a hack in the rain".

Ishidan:Twilight Farkle: but being part of the top 1%-0.1% (vs the top 0.01%) still doesn't guarantee you a cab ride in Manehattan.

Although having a team of friends consisting of a Wonderbolt-grade speed flyer with weather control abilities, a farm girl with a high towing capacity, and a master of teleportation and levitation magics means you never have to do anything so common as "hailing a hack in the rain".

...if only you HAD friends like that, right Rarity?

this is also true... they tend to forget what they themselves can do if it'd fix things the first time...

and that's why no matter how much i love fluttershy, big mac is still best pony.

I really want to see a Big Macintosh (or is it McIntosh now?) centered episode. Like a 'day in the life' kind of thing. While all this wild stuff is going down with the Mane Six, Big Mac is just trying to do what he always does.

and that's why no matter how much i love fluttershy, big mac is still best pony.

I really want to see a Big Macintosh (or is it McIntosh now?) centered episode. Like a 'day in the life' kind of thing. While all this wild stuff is going down with the Mane Six, Big Mac is just trying to do what he always does.

Ishidan:Oh yeah, Weird Al episode.Here's my prediction: Weird Al has written Discord's song./know who else we need to meet? The Equestria smithy. Somebody had to make the train, the SCS6k, and all the Castle's traps, amongst other mechanical wonders. And I want that smithy to be an old and grizzled stallion...voiced by Peter Cullen.

I just assume that the Ponies just kind of work each part of things out for themselves. Train pony makes trains, SCS6k pony makes industrial dog flatteners, etc. Every time Twilight ruins the balloon, Cherry Berry parches it up. In theory, Rarity would design the better if she could focus just on that. In practice she mines for gems, creates fabrics, hob nobs and researches people to hob nob with, and does a bunch of other things. Every step. Train engineer probably does the same.

and that's why no matter how much i love fluttershy, big mac is still best pony.

I really want to see a Big Macintosh (or is it McIntosh now?) centered episode. Like a 'day in the life' kind of thing. While all this wild stuff is going down with the Mane Six, Big Mac is just trying to do what he always does.

that could be interesting, but i'd think a better episode might be something that happens in ponyville while the six are off saving equestria. shows all the minor characters fixing a problem... i mean, they had to've been able to keep it together before twilight showed up...

I really want to see a Big Macintosh (or is it McIntosh now?) centered episode. Like a 'day in the life' kind of thing. While all this wild stuff is going down with the Mane Six, Big Mac is just trying to do what he always does.

that could be interesting, but i'd think a better episode might be something that happens in ponyville while the six are off saving equestria. shows all the minor characters fixing a problem... i mean, they had to've been able to keep it together before twilight showed up...

It worked pretty nicely with the pair of episodes ("Just for Sidekicks" / "Games Ponies Play") towards the end of Season 3. Now that we have a Season 5 to look forward to, maybe we'll see some more experimentation along those lines.